My Last Word on the Subject

I learned last night about a ‘phone tree’ campaign for Jews to boycott Jewish magazines that carry my work. It’s not because of anything I wrote – not even the NYPress piece. No, it’s because of a review of my book in Jerusalem Report that called me an atheist! So, I figured I’d write this little letter to the editor.

Jerusalem Report

Letters to the Editor

Dear Jerusalem Report,

Thanks for reviewing my book, Nothing Sacred. While I understand all is fair in reviews, I must correct the impression you created by calling me a “yoga-practicing, atheist Jew from New York’s East Village.”

I do practice yoga, and I do live in the East Village, but I’m not an atheist. The two chapters in my book dealing with God should have made that clear: I simply do not believe in any religion’s ability to define God’s attributes. I understand that an abstract conception of God is difficult, but it’s part of what makes Judaism Judaism.

By calling me an atheist, Jerusalem Report succeeded in inspiring an organized effort to boycott Jewish magazines that carry my writing. A colleague of mine has successfully convinced the initiators of the boycott that your characterization of my relationship to deity was inaccurate.

I thought it might be appropriate to set the record straight on your pages, just in case there were others concerned about my Godlessness.

Douglas Rushkoff is the author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity, as well as a dozen other bestselling books on media, technology, and culture, including Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, Media Virus, Life Inc and the novel Ecstasy Club. He is Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens. He wrote the graphic novels Aleister & Adolf, Testament, and A.D.D., and made the television documentaries Generation Like, Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders, and Digital Nation. He lives in New York, and lectures about media, society, and economics around the world.